This year — the seventh in our ten-year strategic plan to transform New York City into a no-kill community — we continued to reduce euthanasia at Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C), while intake at AC&C shelters reached its lowest in history. Since 2003, more than 220,000 lives have been saved through the collective efforts of AC&C and our Maddie's® Pet Partners.

Our success relies upon the unyielding efforts of the 150 Alliance Participating Organizations (APOs) that work daily to bring animals out of harm's way and into the lives of caring adopters, and our volunteers, who are always at the ready to help wherever they are needed. We are grateful for the continued financial support provided by Maddie's Fund®, the Pet Rescue Foundation, and the ASPCA's enduring commitment of funding and resources that fuel our progress.

Our most effective tool for saving lives continued to be transfers of animals from AC&C to partner rescues and shelters for adoption. The Alliance's continued funding of AC&C's New Hope Program, which orchestrates these transfers, coupled with the Alliance's Wheels of Hope transport program's daily lifesaving transports of animals from AC&C to rescues, fosters, adopters, and veterinary facilities, continued to drive down euthanasia at our city shelters.

In 2011, our adoption program received a boost when the Petco Foundation donated a new adoption van to the Alliance. This additional resource enables us to bring more animals to the public each month. And it bolsters our mobile adoption capabilities, which continues to rely upon the weekly deployment of North Shore Animal League America's mobile adoption units for use by other APOs.

We built upon the success of our existing efforts to promote pets for adoption, including our signature adoption event, Adoptapalooza; our partnership in the highly anticipated annual Broadway Barks adoption extravaganza; and our partnership with NBC's New York Live.

Through our Picasso Veterinary Fund® and other medical assistance programs, we provided nearly 1,000 dogs and cats with medical care to prepare them for adoption. We continued to offer free and low-cost services to New York City pet owners, including spay/neuter and microchipping. And we refined our New York City Feral Cat Initiative (NYCFCI) efforts to support the efforts of those individuals who care for New York City's community cats.

We have come far, but we will not rest until we have created a bright future for all of New York City's homeless animals.